Alex Harkess urged his Edinburgh Stellar Monarchs squad to produce and they did to power the Armadale combine back in with a shout of making the play-offs in the Cab Direct Championship with victory over FTS Berwick Bandits.
Kye Thomson (pictured) lead the way with his first maximum and team boss Harkess said: “The heat leaders were just fantastic and I’m particularly pleased for Kye.
“Both Kye and Craig Cook, who also claimed a full maximum, earned a rest from Heat 15 and it was nice to go in to that final race with no pressure on.”
Monarchs’ top three claimed a brilliant 39 points, including 12 race wins, and laid the foundation for victory.
Neither Bastian Borke nor Adam Roynon scored as many as they would have been hoping for, but they did pick up some important points, none more so than Roynon’s Heat 8 race win with Monarchs only two ahead.
Berwick undoubtedly suffered some bad luck during the match and lost Thomas Jorgensen in a spectacular Heat 3 fall, the rider losing control on the third corner and he somersaulted over the bars and into the air fence. He was unable to continue and injury rider replacement was triggered.
They would also point to some engine trouble for local hero Leon Flint and the non-arrival of Jonas Knudsen. However, on the plus side, their guests Steve Boxall and James Pearson, were both excellent with 15 and four bonus between them.
Top Bandit was ex-Monarchs racer, Richie Worrall, with 13 points but, unusually for him, just the one race win against Josh Pickering in Heat 10. He was in front on three other occasions but each of Cook, Thomson and Josh Pickering took him from the back with excellent overtakes on a night with plenty of highlights.
Earlier, Berwick had taken the lead with an ominously easy 5-1 in Heat 2 but that turned out to be their only race advantage, and one of only two race wins.
Edinburgh Monarchs (49): Josh Pickering 12+0, Bastian Borke 4+1, Kye Thomson 15+0, Paco Castagna 0+0, Craig Cook 12+0, Dayle Wood 0+0, Adam Roynon 6+0, Mark Parker 0+0
Berwick Bandits (41): Richie Worrall 13+0, Steve Boxall 5+3, Jye Etheridge 3+1, Leon Flint 6+2, Thomas Jorgensen 0+0, James Pearson 10+1, Connor Coles 4+1
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